Is This ‘SNL Mastercard’ Commercial Real Or A Bad ‘SNL’ Commercial Parody?

Saturday Night Live has partnered with Mastercard to create an SNL MasterCard, and the commercial for the card is about as lame as the press release for it on Marketwatch:

Live from your wallet, it’s Saturday Night – every day of the week. NBCUniversal Enterprises and Broadway Video Enterprises, MasterCard MA, +0.90% and Alliance Data Retail Services have partnered to create a credit card offering that embraces SNL’s spirit of fun, entertainment and surprises. The SNL MasterCard will reward cardholders for purchases they’re already making while also providing access to exclusive entertainment experiences – including SNL tickets and offers – as well as robust everyday features and benefits.

I mean, I don’t really understand the point of branded credit cards, but this one seems particularly strange, because Saturday Night Live may be a well-liked and beloved institution, but it’s not really cool. Is anyone really hankering to be associated with SNL every time they make a purchase? How does a credit card embrace “fun, entertainment and surprises”? It’s a piece of plastic!

The ad above with Taran Killam and Bobby Moynihan is kind of clumsy and obvious, which probably describes more SNL sketches than I’m comfortable with admitting. And if it’s anything like Cecily Strong’s commercial last year, expect to see this during airings of SNL, and we’ll all be temporarily confused because we’ll all end up thinking it’s a commercial parody from the show.

There are some GREAT branded cards (Starwood Preferred, US Airways, etc.) but the niche ones like these usually suck. GE Capital is releasing this one and their rewards are horrible. A free SNL wallet (YAY?!?) and vague “points” that don’t have a designed value… plus a hard pull on your credit.